The Jews eventually withdrew on religious grounds, and Rule was involved when Lieutenant Governor William Houston set up the first official free school on Flat Bastion Road in 1832 and he sent his own children there.

The following year Rule announced that he would reform his school and it would not only include religious instruction for girls and boys but students would be required to attend the Methodist church on a Sunday.

Rule was also interested in the families, and he would survey the population so that he could distribute Bibles translated into Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.

Amongst others he twice met Félix Torres Amat, who was the Bishop of Astorga who had translated the Bible into Spanish in 1824, but had had difficulty finding money for publication.

The whole matter came to a head on the centenary of the Wesleyan Foundation in 1839 when Gibraltarians were surprised to see 400 of Rule's local school children marching down Main Street carrying banners that showed that they were committing to the Methodist approach.

Rule's obsession was Spain, and he concentrated on teaching in Spanish whilst trying to establish missions in Cadiz, Madrid and eventually Algeciras.

[3] Matters came to a head after Rule had been requested to economise and it emerged that he had committed to purchase a property in the south of Gibraltar without prior approval.

Rule offered his resignation, and it was accepted, with the Missionary Society noting later that he was fortunate to escape so lightly.

There is a carte de visite from Rule in the collection of Manuel Matamoros[1] and he has been called the founder of Protestantism in Spain.

Rule married again in 1873, and he extended his earlier translation of the gospels to include the whole of the New Testament, and this was published by the Missionary Society in 1880.